More cattle trains for western Queensland

Western Queensland is set to benefit from more cattle train services after a trial was considered successful.

Three trains will travel weekly from Winton and two weekly from Mount Isa.

State Transport Minister Scott Emerson says 27 services will also be made available on the Quilpie line.

"All up we're looking to run about 325 cattle train services per season, that's up about 48 services from 2012."

Meanwhile, Quilpie mayor Stuart McKenzie says the first train of the season from his town is expected to load later this month.

He says there has been an underutilisation of the trains from Quilpie in the last couple of years because of difficult negotiations with the private service operator, Aurizon.

As a result, he says, the four south-west Queensland shires have teamed up to launch a study which will consider the opportunities for rail transport into the future.

"(It's) because this issue has been going around for so long now and nothing has been resolved.

"The privatisation of rail hasn't helped obviously.

"But we are really looking at who is going to utilise it, what sort of usage is potentially there, and then the capacity of rail to actually provide the service.

"Then we look at the options for the investment actually required to provide that."

In a statement to the ABC, Aurizon said: "We are advised by customers on their requirements for rail transport and we allocate trains accordingly. The first such request this year has been for a train on the 27th of this month. Aurizon will continue to meet its contractual agreement with the government to provide livestock services and work with customers to best meet their needs."